Ryne McClaren: A Weblog

Right Off The Bat

The Red Sox are already priming the pump for another spectacular implosion -- after the first game of the season, no less!
If you're Terry Francona, what do you do when your star player allegedly leaves the ballpark before the end of your first official game as manager of the Red Sox? In a 7-2 loss to the Orioles to boot?

The answer might come today. Attempts yesterday to reach Pedro Martinez were unsuccessful. His agent, Fernando Cuza, did not return calls.

Francona indicated he had a policy on players staying around for the whole game, but "in fairness to him [Martinez] and everybody else, that wasn't conveyed correctly on my part and I take responsibility for that."

Does something as basic as that have to be conveyed?

Obviously it does. Nice job, Petey. That's the ol' team spirit.

And look at Francona apologize... for himself.
"It's my responsibility to do that, yes," Francona said. "I don't think he was trying to do anything, well, it's not malicious, but that's more my responsibility to make sure it's conveyed."

South Dakota Ties To DailyKos

Reader Cory Skluzak points out that South Dakota congressional candidate Stephanie Herseth is one Democrat who has not created any distance between herself and left-wing hate site DailyKos. Why not? And here is an earlier post in which I mention Herseth's connection to DailyKos. And in this post you can see all of the Democratic candidates that have withdrawn their advertising from Kos.

Even more disturbing is that her campaign blog also continues to link to the notorious Democratic Underground, a hothouse of insane and extreme leftist ideas. The creatures who inhabit Democratic Underground make Markos Zuniga look balanced and rational.

For some background information on where I'm coming from, here is Markos Zuniga commenting on the deaths of four Americans in Fallujah last week:
Let the people see what war is like. This isn't an Xbox game. There are real repercussions to Bush's folly.

That said, I feel nothing over the death of merceneries. They aren't in Iraq because of orders, or because they are there trying to help the people make Iraq a better place. They are there to wage war for profit. Screw them.


And here is just one Democratic Underground post I gathered from that site. Many, many more comments in this same vein can be found by following the link, but I'll warn you that you'll read some very nasty stuff there.
cleofus1: These men are just serial killers with a good retirement plan. They deserve what they get.

And Stephanie Herseth is taking money from these people. That's very disturbing, and it's high time for her to step up and do the right thing.

You can contact the Herseth campaign here: [email protected]

Britain Has No Clue

Think America has some educational rot going on? We most certainly do, but check out Britain.
The Battle of Hastings never took place and Adolf Hitler is a fictional character. Robin Hood really existed, Harold Wilson saved Britain during the Second World War and Conan the Barbarian is a bona fide figure from early Nordic history.

It might sound like the latest attempt by revisionist extremists to pervert the past but the reality is perhaps more disturbing: this is how a significant chunk of the British population, muddled by Hollywood films and unmoved by academia, sees history.

[...]

Researchers, who conducted face-to-face interviews with more than 2,000 people, found that almost a third of the population thinks the Cold War was not real and 6 per cent believeThe War of the Worlds, H G Wells's fictional account of a Martian invasion, did happen.

Some 57 per cent think King Arthur existed and 5 per cent accept that Conan the Barbarian, the warrior played by Arnold Schwarzenegger in a 1982 film, used to stalk the planet for real. Almost one in two believe William Wallace, the 13th-century Scottish resistance leader played by Mel Gibson in his film Braveheart, was invented for the silver screen.

The study raised new questions about the teaching of history after it found that 11 per cent of the British population believed Hitler did not exist and 9 per cent said Winston Churchill was fictional. A further 33 per cent believed Mussolini was not a real historical figure.


To be honest this probably has more to do with the cancerous intrusion of "political correctness" in British schools than it does with Hollywood. Either that or they must be importing American public school teachers.

[Via FARK]

The Soros Machine Warbles

Be an idiot, get on the radio.

Hey, it worked for Markos Zuniga!

Unfortunate Quote of the Day

Goes to Senator Chris Dodd.
Robert C. Byrd, in my view, would have been right at any time. He would have been right at the founding of this country. He would have been in the leadership crafting this Constitution. He would have been right during the great conflict of civil war in this Nation.

A former Klansman would have been "right" during the Civil War? For the Confederacy I guess he means.

[Via Andrew Sullivan, but Henry Hanks has the goods on Dodd.]

The Max Cleland Fan Club

Michael Crowley's Slate rundown on new Dem poster child Max Cleland.
Among the attendees at the Democratic National Committee's gala "unity" dinner last week was former Georgia Sen. Max Cleland, who now spends so much time on stage with Sen. John Kerry that he's practically Kerry's running mate. Cleland, who was defeated in a famously brutal 2002 campaign, has said losing his Senate seat left him humiliated and mired in deep depression, but you wouldn't know it from his glamorous arrival at the unity event. I was standing near an elevator when the doors opened and Cleland, who lost two legs and an arm to a grenade explosion in Vietnam, rolled out in his wheelchair. He was almost instantly surrounded by a crowd of excited party donors who snapped pictures and jockeyed for his attention, as actual senators like John Breaux and Joe Biden strolled past unnoticed. This was no fluke. Cleland has become the Democratic Party's newest celebrity. At Kerry campaign events, he often hands out copies of the Kerry biography Tour of Duty—autographed not by the candidate but by Cleland.

Kerry books autographed by Cleland? That's a bit too much for me.

Still A Real Jerk

P.J. O'Rourke on John Kerry's 1986 wimp-out in the Philippines:
He was caught in Kerry-ish calculation--an ambitious young senator on his first important bipartisan delegation with its delicate mission of neutrality. Cory Aquino was very popular. But so was President Reagan. Which way to have it? Why, have it both ways! So Kerry was firmly behind Pash Commit of Flips to Dem, up to a point. Just as today Kerry is brave sailor/bold war protester; foe of Saddam/friend of Hans Blix; political underdog/entitled nominee; big government liberal/corporate tax-cutting conservative; rider of Harleys/marrier of Heinz; and, incidentally, still a real jerk.

There's much more by following the link, of course.

WWND?

What Would Neville Do?

Al-Qaeda to Spain:
The letter gave Spain until Sunday, April 4, to fulfill its demands of ending support for the United States and withdrawing troops from both countries.

"If these demands are not met, we will declare war on you and ... convert your country into an inferno and your blood will flow like rivers," the letter said.

The group said it had showed its force with the "blessed attacks of March 11" and the planting of a bomb along the high-speed railway line linking Madrid and the Seville last week, which did not explode.

Wax On, Wax Off

Not too shabby!

You are a MASTER of the English language!

While your English is not exactly perfect,
you are still more grammatically correct than
just about every American. Still, there is
always room for improvement...

How grammatically sound are you?
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It's Go Time

The hate-filled sissies who infest the left leaning blogs are now issuing threats in the comments section of Michael Friedman's site.
You all should watch what you say. We are watching.

And we, too, can use your statements to tar your advertisers, if you take them, or the candidates you like to. We can go even further. People like Professor Reynolds have jobs. Although Reynolds has tenure, a letter writing campaign to his employers, to local newspapers, and to the student newspaper would hurt his professional standing if he puts his foot in his mouth, which he has in the past.

The leftist morons want to go to the mattresses.

And do you know what? I'll bet we'd be up for that.